Announcing | NYFA Holiday Gift Guide

Our second-annual Gift Guide arrives just in time for the holiday shopping season.

NYFA affiliated artists and emerging organizations are busy creating year-round. Help celebrate and support their work this holiday season by purchasing products and experiences that they’ve poured their artistic hearts and minds into. 

Books

Jennifer Egan’s (Fellow in Fiction ’90) Manhattan Beach, her first novel since her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Good Squad, steps back in time to World War II-era Brooklyn. With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, the historical novel revolves around Anna, the first female diver at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, as she explores the disappearance of her father. Purchase the book here. 

Deanna Fei’s (Fellow in Fiction ’06) Girl in Glass explores what it means to save a life: from the front lines of a neonatal intensive care unit to the perils of the American healthcare system; from decades of medical innovation to the question of how we care for our most vulnerable; and to the potent force for a child’s will to live. Purchase the book here.

Michael Findlay, a NYFA Board Member and an internationally-respected art dealer, has authored a highly-engaging and empowering book that urges museum goers to unplug from the audio tour, ignore information labels, and really see art with all of their senses. The book, Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art, can be purchased here.

Kathleen Hill’s (Fellow in Fiction ’94) She Read to us in the Late Afternoons: A Life in Novels, is a memoir built around stories of how novels have infused her life, or the difference they have made. The book explores defining moments in her life through the novels she read in Nigeria, France, and at home in New York. Order the book here.

Patricia Horvath’s (Fellow in Nonfiction ’07, Fiction ’15) All the Difference: A Memoir is a captivating account of the author’s transformation from a visibly disabled young woman into someone who could, abruptly, “pass” for able-bodied. Purchase the book here.

Joseph Keckler’s (Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work ’12) signatures are his three-plus-octave operatic voice and the mesmerizing stories he tells. His new book, Dragons at the Edge of a Flat World: Portraits and Revelations, combines original pieces with material from his acclaimed performances. Purchase the book here.

Lisa Ko’s (Fellow in Fiction ’02) The Leavers is a 2017 National Book Award Finalist and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. The critically-acclaimed book is a moving examination of borders and belonging that follows an undocumented Chinese mother who suddenly disappears and the young American-born son she leaves behind. Buy the book here.

James Sherry’s (Fellow in Poetry ’91) The Oligarch uses the structure of Machiavelli’s The Prince to show how governance has changed over the last 500 years. If Machiavelli focuses on power concentrated in the hands of the republic or principalities, The Oligarch looks at how states and companies today function as oligarchies. Purchase the book here.

Art + Art Books

Browse NYFA’s Artspace page for curated works by NYFA affiliated artists. Find photographs, prints, paintings, works on paper, and more and stay tuned for a fresh group of works for sale by NYFA affiliated artists from the Hudson Valley in the coming weeks!

Fran Antmann’s (Sponsored Project) Maya Healers: A Thousand Dreams is a stunning book of photographs and writing that explores the power and mystery of ancient indigenous healing practices among the Maya people of Guatemala. Purchase the book here.

Debi Cornwall’s (Sponsored Project) Welcome to Camp America offers a vivid and disorienting glimpse into the U.S. Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, (known as “Gitmo”) and its growing diaspora, through photographs, once-classified government documents, and first-person accounts. Buy the book here.

Johanna Goodman (Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts ’17) is having a pre-holiday sale featuring 13″x19″ art prints. There are dozens of colorful collage works to choose from, and you can view them here.

Andres Serrano’s (Sponsored Project and Fellow in Photography ’87) Salvation: the Holy Land shows Serrano’s approach to the subject of religious faith through stunning photographs. Using a Mamiya RB67, he captured the landscape, people, and everyday lives and celebrations in Israel, visiting sacred sites in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Galilee, and the Dead. Buy the book here.

Alex Webb (Fellow in Photography ’86) and Rebecca Norris Webb’s Slant Rhymes is a photographic conversation between the two renowned authors and artists. The book features selected 80 paired photographs taken during the Webbs’ nearly 30-year relationship, creating an affectionate play of visual rhymes. Buy the book here.

Films, Etc.

Spike Lee (Fellow in Film ’85) and Lynn Nottage (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’94, ’00) team up for She’s Gotta Have It, a Netflix Original that returns to the story and character of the very first Spike Lee “joint.” Streaming on Netflix starting November 23.

Li Lu’s (Sponsored Project) There is a New World Somewhere follows the story of Sylvia, a woman who returns to her Texas hometown for a friend’s wedding. There, she meets Esteban, an electrifying stranger who dares her to join him on a road trip through the Deep South. Stream it on Amazon Prime.

Jodi Savitz’s (Sponsored Project) Girl on Girl is a feature-length documentary that follows the stories of feminine lesbians who, even after coming out, feel invisible and stigmatized. Read our August 2017 interview with Savitz here and rent or purchase the film here.

Music

Sarah Hennies (Fellow in Music/Sound ’16, Shelley Pinz Grant Recipient ’17) is a composer and percussionist whose work utilizes an often grueling, endurance-based performance practice. One of her latest recordings, Gather & Release, is available for sale as a limited-edition CD in a hand-sewn sleeve. Buy it here.

Eunbi Kim (IAP ’16, ’17) is a virtuosic pianist with wide-ranging artistic sensibilities. In her recording debut, A House of Many Rooms, Kim performs genre-fluid concert music by exploratory artist and 10-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch. Purchase it here.

Lisa Kron’s (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’94) Tony Award-wining musical FUN HOME is a gripping portrayal of a daughter’s determination to understand and connect with her volatile, brilliant enigmatic father that’s based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. Get the original cast recording here.

Qasim Ali Naqvi’s (Fellow in Music/Sound ’16, Shelley Pinz Grant Recipient ’17) Film is a body of analog electronic music created for the feature film Tripoli Cancelled and the three-channel video installation Two Meetings and a Funeral. Both film/video works were created by Naeem Mohaiemen and were commissioned by Documenta 14. Film is an homage to the Moog instrument legacy and is available for purchase here.

Pianist/composer Deanna Witkowski’s (Sponsored Project) Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns is a lyrical trio session that interprets a spiritually-charged body of music rarely investigated by jazz artists. Buy the digital album here.

Becky Starobin’s (Sponsored Project) Bridge Records is perhaps best known for its recordings of 20th and 21st-Century classical repertoire. The Sunday Times (London) called the company “one of modern music’s most fortunate assets.” New releases include Leonard Bernstein: Complete Solo Works for Piano and Alma Espanola featuring Isabel Leonard and Sharon Isbin. See all new releases here.

Experiences

See award-winning David Henry Hwang (Playwriting/Screenwriting ’85) and Julie Taymor’s (Fellow in Performance Art/Emergent Forms ’89) Broadway revival of the modern classic M. Butterfly starring Clive Owen. The production tells a remarkable love story of international espionage and personal betrayal. Original music by Elliot Goldenthal (Fellow in Music Composition ’89). Purchase tickets here.

Buy tickets to see Tony Kushner’s (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’87) Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America on Broadway. The new production of the landmark play will star Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield after selling out its London run. Buy tickets here.

See work by New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer Justin Peck (Fellow in Choreography ’13) this winter. He’ll present a piece as part of NYCB’s “21st Century Choreographers” program in late January/early February, and another as part of the “Here/Now” program in late February/early March, both featuring music by Sufjan Stevens. More info and tickets here and here.

Dael Orlandersmith’s (Fellow in Fiction ’96) Until the Flood will enjoy its New York Premiere this January at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. The one-person show was written in response to Michael Brown’s death; Orlandersmith plays the many faces and voices of life in St. Louis without advancing any one viewpoint above others. Purchase tickets here.

Hear Eva Salina (Fellow in Folk/Traditional Arts ’15) perform at globalFEST, a world music platform that will bring 12 of the world’s most interesting artists to three stages in New York City on January 14, 2018. Salina, a groundbreaking interpreter of Balkan Romani songs, will perform with her partner Peter “Perica” Stan, a Serbian Romani accordionist. Purchase tickets here.

Map out your desires using Patricia Smith’s (Fellow in Poetry ’09, Printmaking/Drawing/Artists’ Book ’14) Pocket of Desire Map, which lays out an internal geography of personal desires against a drawing in Smith’s signature style. Record a day, a week, or a month on the same map and at the end of the chosen time period you’ll have an accurate picture of what you want. Purchase the map here.

Though tickets aren’t yet available for purchase, we couldn’t help but include Obie Award-winning Young Jean Lee’s (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’10) Straight White Men, which opens this March on Broadway (and is set on Christmas Eve!). The story is a hilariously ruthless look at the classic American father-son drama. View show details here. 

More Ways to Give

With friends like you, we can continue to fulfill our mission to empower artists in all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives. Consider making a donation to NYFA to help us continue our vital services.

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Image: Jill Levine (Fellow in Sculpture ‘05); Untitled; 2014; gouache, pencil on paper; available via NYFA’s Artspace page.